The present invention relates to package assemblies including attachment strips comprising stretch release adhesive by which the package assemblies may be temporarily adhered to surfaces.
Package assemblies are known that include attachment strips comprising stretch release adhesive such as the attachment strips commercially available from Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, St. Paul, Minn., under the trade designation xe2x80x9cCommand (trade mark) Adhesivexe2x80x9d, and described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,403,206 (Bries et al) filed Sep. 20, 1994, or the corresponding International Published Application WO 95/06691. Using such an attachment strip a housing of one of the package assemblies can be adhered to a surface so that articles can then be removed from the package assembly. Then, when subsequently desired, the attachment strip can be stretched to remove it from between the housing and the surface. Generally, that attachment strip comprises a stretchable laminate including a central layer of polymeric foam (e.g., polyolefin foam), and two layers of stretchable polymeric film (e.g., polyethylene or polypropylene film, with linear low density and ultra linear low density polyethylene film being preferred) bonded along opposite major surfaces of the layer of foam. The attachment strip also includes two layers of stretch release adhesive on opposite sides of that stretchable laminate, both of which layers are spaced from one end of the stretchable laminate so that the portion of the stretchable laminate extending beyond the two layers of adhesive forms a tab that can be manually engaged to stretch the attachment strip. One of the layers of stretch release adhesive can be adhered to the housing of the package assembly, and the other to a surface (e.g., a planar vertical surface of a wall) to which it is to be adhered so that the package assembly is supported along that surface by the attachment strip. When that attachment strip is then sequentially stretched by manually pulling on the tab portion, the layers of stretch release adhesive will release from both the housing and the surface so that the package assembly can be separated from the surface. While such attachment strips are very useful and effective for releasably adhering the package assembly along a surface, they are more expensive than may be desired for use on certain types of package assemblies, particularly those that are inexpensive and/or may be used for only a short time, such as package assemblies including discount coupons dispensed at the point of sale, such as in an isle of a grocery store, or including facial or cleaning tissues or the like. That expense of the attachment strips arises, at least in part, from the procedures needed during manufacturing of the attachment strips to leave the non-adhesive coated tab portion of the attachment strips and the manner (i.e., typically manual) by which such attachment strips are applied to the housing.
The present invention provides a package assembly including an attachment strip comprising stretch release adhesive that can have the attachment and release properties described above for the attachment strip commercially available from Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, St. Paul, Minn., under the trade designation xe2x80x9cCommand (trade mark) Adhesivexe2x80x9d, but which attachment strip is significantly less expensive to manufacture and to apply to a housing of the package assembly than the prior art attachment strip described above.
The present invention also provides a method for forming a plurality of such package assemblies comprising the steps of (1) providing an elongate supply of the attachment strip material having opposite major surfaces entirely defined by stretch release adhesive (i.e., the elongate supply length of attachment strip material can be in a roll); (2) forming walls into a plurality of housings so that each of the housings has an attachable portion and a manually removable portion (e.g., by forming lines of weakness (score lines or rows of perforations) in each of the housings to define the portions); (4) applying a predetermined length of the attachment strip material to each of the housings by adhering a first part of the predetermined length along the outer surface of the attachable portion of the housing with a second part of the predetermined length extending from one end of the first part; and (5) providing for each of the package assemblies means for restricting adhesion between the second part of the length of attachment strip material and a planar support surface when the first part of the length of attachment strip material is adhered along the planar support surface. The first part of the length of attachment strip material on each housing can be adhered to a planar support surface (e.g., typically a vertical surface) to support the housing along the surface. When, subsequently, it is desirable to remove the housing from that surface, the removable portion of the housing can be manually separated from the attachable portion of the housing to afford manual stretching of the first part of the length of attachment strip material by engagement with the second part to remove the first part of the length of attachment strip material from between the attachable portion of the housing and the planar support surface.
The attachable portion of each housing can include a first wall (included in the walls forming the housing) to which the first part of the length of attachment strip material is attached, and can further include a portion of a second wall included in the walls forming the housing; and the second part of the length of attachment strip material can be adhered to the manually removable portion of the housing which can be formed from a portion of that second wall by providing the lines of weakness in the second wall between the manually removable and attachable portions of the housing. The first and second walls can be disposed at an angle (e.g., a right angle) with respect to each other to provide at least a portion of the means for restricting adhesion between the second part of the length of attachment strip material and a planar support surface when the first part of the length of attachment strip material is adhered along the planar support surface. The second part of the length of attachment strip material can be adhered along an inner surface or along the outer surface of the manually removable portion of the housing. If it is adhered along the outer surface of the manually removable portion of the housing its adhesive surface can remain exposed, or can be covered by a protective layer. For example, a protective layer of thin flexible material can be applied around the housing and the applied length of attachment strip material, and a separable portion of that layer can be adhered to the second part of the length of attachment strip material on its surface opposite the manually removable portion of the housing. That separable portion will remain adhered to the second part of the length of attachment strip material after the rest of the protective layer of thin flexible material is removed.
Alternatively, the attachable portion of each of the housings can be a first portion of a first wall included in the walls forming the housing to which first portion the first part of the length of attachment strip material is attached, and that first wall can also include a second portion aligned with the first portion and included in the removable portion of the housing, with the first and second portions of the first one of the walls being joined along a line of weakness to afford, after the removable portion of the housing is manually removed from its attachable portion, manual stretching of the first part of the length of attachment strip material by engagement with the second part to remove the first part of the length of attachment strip material from between the attachable portion of the housing and the planar support surface to remove the attachable portion of the housing from that surface. The second part of the length of attachment strip material can be adhered along an inner surface of the manually removable portion of the housing or along its outer surface where its adhesive surface can be covered by a protective layer to provide the means for restricting adhesion between the second part of the length of attachment strip material and a planar support surface when the first part of the length of attachment strip material is adhered along the planar support surface. For example, a protective layer of thin flexible material with a separable portion can be adhered to the second part of the length of attachment strip material as was described above.
As a further option, the attachable portion of each of the housings can include a first part to which the first part of the length of attachment strip material is adhered, and that attachable portion of the housing can further include a second part co-extensive with the second part of the length of attachment strip material to which the second part of the length of attachment strip material is adhered, which second part of the attachable portion of the housing is separable from its first part to afford, after the removable portion of the housing is manually removed from its attachable portion, manual stretching of the first part of the length of attachment strip material by engagement with its second part to remove the first part of the attachment strip material from between the attachable portion of the housing and the planar support surface.
As yet a further option the attachable portion of the housing can include a first wall having opposite front and rear surfaces, the first part of the length of attachment strip material can be adhered to the rear surface of the first wall; the manually removable portion of the housing can be a minor portion of the first wall along its front surface; and the second part of the length of attachment strip material can extend around an edge of the first wall be adhered to the manually removable portion of said housing, thereby providing at least a portion of the means for restricting adhesion between the second part of the length of attachment strip material and a planar support surface to which it is attached.
Also optionally the attachable portion can be a first portion of a first wall included in the walls forming the housing to which first portion of the first wall the first part of the length of attachment strip material is adhered, a second portion of the first wall can be included in the removable portion of the housing, the second part of the length of attachment strip material can be adhered to a second wall included in the manually removable portion of the housing with the first and second walls being disposed at about a right angle with respect to each other to provide at least a portion of the means for restricting adhesion between the second part of the length of attachment strip material and a planar support surface to which it is attached.
The attachment strip used in the package assembly according to the present invention can be a length of attachment strip material having the structure of the attachment strips described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,403,206 (Bries et al) described above, except that two layers of stretch release adhesive on opposite sides of that stretchable laminate extend entirely between the opposite ends of the length and the attachment strip includes no portions having surfaces not defined by adhesive that form a manually engagaeble tab. Such attachment strip material can be made in a long supply length for less cost than making the prior art attachment strips described above because there is no need to leave portions of the stretchable laminate without adhesive coating to provide the tab.
Alternatively, the attachment strip used could consist of two layers of adhesive that define the major adhesive surfaces adhered along opposite major surfaces of a single layer of stretchable polymeric film, or could be similar to the attachment strip described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,409,189 (Luhmann), which attachment strip would consist of a single layer of pressure sensitive adhesive that would define the two major adhesive surfaces, but would have no polymeric film covering over its end portion to provide non-sticky surfaces for its tab portion by which its layer of pressure sensitive adhesive could be stretched to cause it to release from surfaces between which it has been adhered.